New York|Fentanyl Outpaces Heroin as the Deadliest Drug on Long Island

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Fentanyl Outpaces Heroin as the Deadliest Drug on Long Island

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Kristin Clarino, a toxicologist in the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office in Hauppauge, handling recently tested samples of fentanyl. The drug has killed at least 220 people on Long Island in 2016.CreditCreditJohnny Milano for The New York Times

By Kevin Deutsch

Dec. 28, 2016

An anesthetic commonly used for surgery has surpassed heroin to become the deadliest drug on Long Island, killing at least 220 people there in 2016, according to medical examiners’ records.

The drug, fentanyl, is a synthetic opioid, which can be 100 times more potent than morphine.

The numbers from Long Island are part of a national pattern, as fentanyl fatalities have already surpassed those from heroin in other parts of the country, including New England, as its use has skyrocketed. Part of the reason for the increase is economic — because fentanyl can be manufactured in the lab, it is much cheaper and easier than cultivating heroin.

In New York City, more than 1,000 people are expected to die from drug overdoses this year — the first recorded four-digit death total in city history, according to statistics compiled by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Nearly half of all unintentional drug overdose deaths in the city since July have involved fentanyl, the health department said.

The medical examiners of Long Island’s two counties, Nassau and Suffolk, compiled the new numbers. “Fentanyl has surpassed heroin as the most commonly detected drug in fatal opioid overdoses,” Dr. Michael J. Caplan, the Suffolk County medical examiner, said in a written statement about the statistics, which were obtained by The New York Times ahead of their release. “The influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl from overseas is a nationwide issue that requires a multidisciplinary intervention from all levels of government.”

Nationwide, recorded deaths from opioids surpassed 30,000 in 2015, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And overdoses caused by synthetic opioids like fentanyl increased by 72.2 percent in 2015 over 2014 — one of the deadliest year-over-year surges for any drug in United States history, the same data shows.

As recently as three years ago, few people outside the medical profession or law enforcement had even heard of fentanyl, which is legally prescribed in the form of transdermal patches or lozenges. But drug dealers have been lacing heroin with fentanyl for years, just to fill out the packets and save on the heroin — with or without the user’s knowledge.

At the same time, many drug users seek out fentanyl because it gives them a higher high and the thrill of using something so risky, although often they do not know exactly what they are shooting up.

In a statement responding to the overdose data, James J. Hunt, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division, said that seizures of fentanyl had increased drastically in the last five years. “Not only are drug traffickers mixing it with heroin for street distribution,” he said, “but drug suppliers are sending it in bulk form for resellers to sell in pill form or in bulk powder.”

Prescription fentanyl is used to treat cancer pain and as an anesthetic for surgery. Even small amounts of it can be deadly. The drug is so powerful that law enforcement officers have to wear gloves when searching for it, as just a tiny bit can get into the skin and, depending on the amount, can be fatal.

On Long Island, America’s most densely populated suburban region, opioids of all kinds killed at least 464 people in 2016, the medical examiners’ records show. Hundreds of additional drug overdose analyses are pending.

“Too many young people have fallen victim,” the Nassau County executive, Edward Mangano, said of the new data in a written statement. The Nassau County medical examiner, Dr. Tamara Bloom, did not comment on the new numbers.

In New York City, as of June, there were 184 fentanyl-related overdose deaths recorded — more than in all of 2015, health department records show. Since then, the number of fatal 2016 overdoses involving fentanyl has surged to about 500, according to the department data.

Some users who purchase it believe they are actually buying prescription pain pills like oxycodone or hydrocodone, or heroin alone — drugs far less potent than fentanyl.

A user can fatally overdose within moments of snorting, injecting or swallowing the drug, authorities said.

Correction:Dec. 28, 2016

An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the proportion of drug overdose deaths in New York City that could be attributed to fentanyl. It is nearly half since July, not over half the number this year.

Editors’ Note:Feb. 24, 2017

An article on Dec. 29, 2016, described the rise of deadly fentanyl overdoses on Long Island, based largely on official data and interviews with law-enforcement officials. It was written by a freelance writer, Kevin Deutsch, an author and former staff reporter for The Daily News and Newsday. Several weeks later, The Baltimore Sun published a report that raised questions about claims in a new book by the same reporter, about the drug trade in Baltimore. The Sun reporters also informed The Times that, in the course of researching the claims in Mr. Deutsch’s book, they had reviewed the Times article and had been unable to locate two sources quoted by name in that article. In response, editors and reporters at The Times conducted a detailed review of the fentanyl article. The main facts and thrust of the article, including the official data and quotes from the authorities, were confirmed. However, after extensive reporting efforts, The Times also has been unable to locate or confirm the existence of two people who were named and quoted: Jeffrey Sheridan, described as a resident of Oyster Bay, N.Y., who works as addiction counselor and whose 34-year-old nephew died from a fentanyl overdose on Staten Island in 2015; and Andrew Giordano, described as a 26-year-old resident of Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, who overdosed on a fentanyl-heroin mixture. Mr. Deutsch maintains that the interviews and the descriptions are accurate. But he has not been able to put The Times in contact with either source, or to provide any further material to corroborate the account. At this point, editors have concluded that The Times cannot vouch for the accuracy of those sources, and that material has been removed from the online version of the article.

Katharine Q. Seelye contributed reporting.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: Fentanyl Outpaces Heroin as the Deadliest Drug on Long Island. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe